September 13, 2004
$3.33 a day to breathe
So as I was taking a puff of Advair, for my asthma I did a quick calculation, and it's approx. $3.33 a day to use this stuff to keep my asthma under wrap. Hopefully. And THEN if you need a quick hit because you're having problems, throw on another 90 cents. So many day's you're paying $4.23 , and on a yearly scale that's apporox 1300 - 1545 dollars. Thank you pharmaceutical companies.
Luckily in my case my insurance covers 100%, but if I was not covered, I'm not sure what I'd do, hack and cough until I got sick? I'm definitely not in a tax bracket to get any sort of government subsidy but I couldn't afford $250+ a month (whole family has asthma).
Why do companies like GlaxoSmithKline (makers of Advair) need to charge you that much money ? Maybe to pay for fancy websites like this. Apparently they made a profit of over a billion dollars last year, most likely off of families like mine. Oh, and apparently they're being sued this year, something about not giving correct information about prescribing Paxil to children. Greed prevails.
Posted by Oorgo at September 13, 2004 01:46 PMDrug companies justify thier prices because of research costs. The R&D budget at a large company like GSC (or AstraZeneca, or Phiser, or PPD, or AaiPharma) is many times that profit margin you stated. They can easily end up throwing millions of dollars into a project to find that the drug has dangerous side effects, does not mix well with other meds, etc. However, this research speeds up innovation, increases the knowledge base about pharmaceuticals, and in the long run is better. Cost effective, I don't know, but knowing more is better right?
Posted by: shank at September 30, 2004 10:27 AMUnfortunately on the other side are the people who can't afford the
drugs they need. If I was someone with no insurance, I'd either be
forced to pay the cash and not eat or buy drugs that just barely help,
and then never have my asthma under control.
Also, when a drug company knows about dangerous side-effects to youths
but doesn't admit to it or notify the public, simply because of their
greed, that doesn't make me appreciate the money spent on R&D.
true, no system is perfect. I, for one, am all for nationalized health care, but people in canada will tell you that the lines are insane. Some of them will come to america and pay for it just so they don't have to wait.
Almost all of the foibles in American healthcare are due to privatization. However, you'll never get anyone in a political position to outright admit it. The medical lobby is insanely huge, I think it's the largest. You've got all these pharm companies, the AMA, the AHA, and they just pour money on people. I wonder what that feels like; you know, to have someone pour money on you.
Posted by: shank at September 30, 2004 11:06 AM|
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